The charismatic fashion stylist from the Emmy winning show Queer Eye expounds upon his rise to fame with much heart, words of wisdom, and fashion savvy jois de vivre.
Naturally, Tan France’s memoir includes both mention of Tan’s family background and of fashion retail and styling education. Tan’s grandfather ran a denim factory that inspired Tan’s expertise in clothing construction. Encounters with racism while absorbing colourism in Doncaster, England and Tan’s identity as Pakistani-British and also homosexual led Tan to intern in Utah in the United States where Tan eventually became engaged to Rob France whose art is present throughout this engaging memoir. Their dating stories are sweet and they have a sensible marriage that no doubt keeps a stable home foundation of supporting each other's goals despite the mental health attacks that come naturally with a dual career in fashion and the entertainment industry. Rob always talks Tan down from emotional ledges and is an equal hero in this book beyond their engagement story which proved useful for applying to a reality show. Being cast as a stylist for reality show Queer Eye is also included, with resulting travel and award show elation when the team won an Emmy. There are fashion do’s and don’ts that transcend shallow fashion magazine articles when combined with dating stories and the design philosophy of blending Mormon and Muslim modesty with British style in designs for Kingdom State and Rachel Parcell. For readers who are not business-oriented, there is a genuinely nice overview to starting Kingdom State and some nice advice on taking interviews and how personal finance changes when one becomes a public figure. More unique to Tan's less common perspective are stories about an early smartphone enabling dating, sweatpants losing an important relationship due to letting self care go, crushes on male Bollywood stars in conflict with family assumptions, and special shoes that went missing after taking a solo trip abroad without telling family members about the risk that travel routinely is to personal safety. Other wild adventures include a past job as an airline steward, quitting a job for LGBTQ Pride, and dressing as Britney Spears for television changing Tan's mind about drag and accepting innate femininity despite a more gendered cultural outlook conditioned in childhood. Most important and poignant is Tan's September 11th, 2001 essay about irrational stereotyping and racist treatment of Muslim and Sikh Americans following the World Trade Center bombing, and it's sort of a pity the happy ending and ongoing story of Tan's USA citizenship happened the year after this memoir's publication since everyone really should know that the United States still accepts new citizens even in the Trump era after nearly a decade of harassment in airport security exacerbating lazy thinking about the general public's unchecked racial bias and fear.
There are many laughs mixed with calls for empathy in this memoir which contains far deeper, more substantial content than you would expect from a reality television star, let alone most people in fashion.
Sidebar-- it's nice that Tan's humorous cowriter is credited on the book and not a ghostwriter.
